Your first thought might be that the choice is about a compromise between cost and quality; however, is it really? Is there no way to have it both ways—both ‘cheaper’ and ‘high quality’?

On one hand, you’re expecting quality talent that will deliver for you consistently, in a transparent and trustworthy manner. It seems easier to achieve this with locally-sourced talent.

On the other hand, locally-sourced talent is often much more expensive than remote, nearshore, or offshore talent, and you might not be able to afford people who are as senior and experienced in your country as you could from, say, Eastern Europe or India.

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So, how do you make the choice?

Let’s look at a list of questions that should help you make that decision. 

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Important note: ALL of the replies to these questions are based on actual experiences I’ve seen and had, either myself or with countless clients. However, these are by no means generalisations or absolutes; there are always exceptions, and you should never judge a whole group by several specific examples. That said, there’s an element of chance here, and considering what I’ve learned, heard, experienced, and researched—you’ll have a higher chance of something happening (than not) based on my answers below.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s look at the situation straight in the eye:

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1. Are you a technical person? 

Let’s start easy. If the answer is yes, then it doesn’t matter as much. If the answer is no or ‘not really,’ then you might need to get someone who is both technical and has very strong soft skills that allow them to easily ‘translate’ product and business requirements into technical details—and vice versa. Can you find such a person offshore? You can, but it is much easier to find someone like that onshore, in your country of residence (if you live in an English-speaking country, either natively [US, UK] or culturally [Israel or Dubai]. Otherwise, it might not be the case.). After all, people who live in remote locations usually learn English as their second language. This means that you’re not only looking for their ability to code, but also for a strong enough command of English to speak it with true professional proficiency. This is quite a rare find. So, your options are - either to find a local candidate who possesses both types of skills, or hire an agency with a local representative who will take care of that responsibility for you (e.g., fractional CTO in your country of residence, actual hands-on technical team—remote), or - keep searching remotely, but keep in mind that it will take more time. If you’ve got that time to spend - then that’s not a problem, but make sure you don’t compromise on the language skills, as these can become a blocker quite quickly, especially for non-technical people.

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2. Do you need a ‘yes-man,’ or do you need someone who will challenge your ideas and offer alternatives?

You might think this is related to the previous point, but actually—not so much. There’s a difference in culture and self-confidence levels when it comes to working with onshore candidates versus offshore candidates. More often than not, offshore candidates are service providers who compete against millions of similar candidates (from the whole world!), all with the hope of winning a client like you. As a result, they might want to make you happy and satisfy your needs more than to be critical in their work, because being critical in their work means being critical of the product and requirements—which means being critical of what you do. Think about it this way: Would it be easier for you to be critical of your boss/client when you’re living in the same country as they are, protected by high-standard employment laws, and without the negative perception of being an ‘offshore’ worker (which leads to difficulties in finding a job in the first place)? I somewhat doubt it. Hence, if you decide to go remote - make sure you don’t hire someone who is there to please and agree with your every word. Actively look for someone with a critical mindset, who will disagree with you, who will present alternatives to you, and who will be able to justify those using data.

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3. Do you need that person long-term or short-term? 

There are cases of offshore freelancers who will work with you for years and years, and there are cases of local employees who will switch companies every 6–10 months, often without properly retaining a single place of work in their whole careers. Does that mean you should hire remotely or locally? Surprisingly, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do once you hire; if you want to maintain a long-term relationship with that employee, you need to make sure you see each other in person at least once a year. The reason is that human, real connection is much stronger than any remote ‘bonds’ or ‘activities’ you could have. Human, real, shared experiences build long-lasting relationships, professional or otherwise. So regardless of whether you’ve hired an in-person employee in London, a locally-remote employee from Cornwall, a nearshore project manager from Ukraine, or an offshore developer from India—you want to ensure you have at least several occasions throughout the year where you spend time together in person, either for lunch, a holiday, a corporate party, or just co-working (though make sure to add an element of fun to it!).

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4. Do you feel in control only when you see people working, or when you see results delivered? 

If the need to watch people work overpowers your ability to trust the results, then local employees in an office, micromanaged by you, might be the only way. However, it is in no way a positive or efficient way of managing people, so if you’re open to changing it, or if you don’t have that need in the first place, then working with a fully remote team could actually make more sense for you. What you do need to think about, though, is whether you know how to manage remote employees properly. This is something we will discuss in a separate article soon.

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5. Do your engineers require expensive equipment delivered, such as different types of hardware, IoT devices, or expensive computers? 

This is a simple one: If you need to ship an expensive piece of equipment to an engineer, but that engineer is located in a country where such packages get easily lost, or stuck at customs (with an import tax ending up costing more than the thing itself)—it might be easier to work with a local engineer, or at least a nearshore one (consider Europe).

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6. Do you actually need engineers to be in your country?

That will depend on your culture, management style, and your responses to the previous questions. As someone who has been managing international R&D teams for quite a long time, my answer is—in most cases—no.

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